Woohoo!

I went to visit some friends in the area and it was the perfect time to head there as it was the start of summer. It was sunny everyday, beaches, boats, lots of tanning, you get the idea. Never having been there before, I was not sure what to expect. Everybody told me it’s always really sunny and that was about it.

They were right.

So I started off my trip at ANTIBES, a small old town just next to Cannes. It reminded me a bit of Aix-en-Provence, very quaint, picturesque and not as commercial as some of the other nearby cities. It is also a very big yacht port and I saw many small boats and also monster yachts with multiple levels, helicopters on it, a hot tub and some speed boats all on ONE BIG BOAT. It was like a rap video come true.

Boats, boats, boats!

Trying to cool off with a BIG smoothie.

Then we head off to NICE! Ironically, people are not as nice over there for some reason. You would think that in a place with good weather, beaches, culture, blah blah blah, people would be… merrier. But no, I think the heat is making them crazy. The old city is quite pretty and very different from other parts of France but that was about it for the place. I found it a bit too touristy sometimes.

The view of Nice from the château on the hill.

Looks almost like Italy?

Old streets in the old town.

Next we go to MONACO! As the prince is (finally) getting married, there were posters all around the city advertising it. I guess it was almost like the whole Kate and William circus. I sort of expected to see a lot more flashy sports car since it seems to be the only thing people ever talk about when anyone mentions the place but in fact, they were only parked outside the casinos and fancy hotels but the whole city itself was pretty… normal. KABLAAM, iconic image smashed to bits!

More boats!

In about 50 years, this place will start looking like Hong Kong.

Finally some fancy cars.

And me in a touristy photo with fancy cars!

I did see two porn-star looking actresses driving an orange Lamborghini… Maybe that’s saying something?

And of course how can we end the trip before going to CANNES? I guess the city is much more alive during the film festival but I did like the stretch of road with boardwalk, luxury hotels and all the designer stores. You could say it’s a bit like Rodeo Drive meets Miami Beach? (never been to either of these places but I’m just assuming from what I see on TV!). I’ve been told that people actually rent out their apartment balconies to the paparazzi between 200-600€ PER HOUR when the celebrities are in town just for the best view!!!!!

I told you there were a lot of boats!

There were lots more fancy places which I did not bother taking photos of because you would’ve probably seen them already so I’m trying to show you the not-so-famous parts.

So yea that was my trip. Basically lots of sun, boats, sun, boats, sun, and oh wait more boats! Now off to work on my tan….

Ahh….. The only thing missing is a Pina Colada.

…the sea…

The beach at Seignosse.

…the mountains…

Looking out over the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

…saw the animals…

Aren’t they just too adorable???

Couldn’t resist taking a photo with the cows behind me.

…and of course ate very, very well!

Bring it on, baby.

Now that’s what I call a vacation!

Very big ferris wheel which we eventually decided to get on.

2 weeks ago, I embraced my inner child and explored the fun fair in town though my main motive was actually to get cotton candy.

Definitely very happy with my long awaited cotton candy.

I tried to go to the fair when it just opened but the first two weeks were packed with massive crowds and school kids on vacation so I decided to wait a little while. Few weeks later it was almost completely empty, like a set of a zombie movie! Unfortunately that also meant that not everything was opened. Booo.

I really wanted to go on this roller-coaster but it was closed!

Instead, someone decided to go on the big ferris wheel because it was the tamest ride with a view. A bit lame but who cares, it’s value for money!

Now you know where I live.

There was also another roller coaster ride (the whole track was barbie pink if you can imagine it) and lots junk food in my stomach… duh. Most of the rides were quite expensive though, ranging between 4€-8€ for probably 5 minutes or less. There were also lots of prize-winning games which I could never understand how to play (throw stuff and win an iPhone? Yea right).

So yeah, it wasn’t the best but at least they had food stands that looked like this:

Isn’t it just the cutest?????

And of course how can we end the day without a beer break?

Just needed and excuse to post this photo because I look nice in it

It’s been more than 2 months since my last update and a lot has been happening then (which doesn’t really answer why I don’t post since I should have so much material). Anyway to make things short, Fashion Week happened and I was occupied with a lot of shoots with the MIFA team who came all the way to Paris. I will probably make a whole post on that itself.

Few weeks after, I went to the land of caviar and vodka… RUSSIA! I was there for Russia Fashion Week for Farah Khan’s show (probably also another post on this itself). It was a pity I didn’t go wild there since it was cold most of the time, but mostly the fact that my crazy Russian girls weren’t there After all, how often would it be that I end up in Moscow right? It’s a pretty complicated place to go to without the right documents and reasons…..

Anyway, time for photos!

Look at all that snow!

Moscow by night.

The Red Square.

Any by day.

St. Basil’s Cathedral.

Red Square again!

I have to say though, it was complete luxury going there. Getting chauffeured from the airport and back in a brand new Mercedes, all to myself, staying in a luxurious room in the Ritz Carlton, getting champagne and caviar for breakfast… Not sure why I didn’t take photos of that! Ok so there was champagne but I did not take it for breakfast because I figured it was too much (or I am just getting older).

Of course there was stuff in between, going to shows, doing a photo shoot all over Moscow in one day. It was like a express tour! It happened all so fast and then it was finally time to go again. And just when the weather was getting nicer!

Time to go home.

Home-coming gifts from sweetie

The weather in Paris was so amazing when I returned, it was the perfect opportunity to go for a quick picnic in the park. I remember saying I was already sick of having so many picnics last year but when you don’t do it for at least 6 months because of winter and the sun comes back out, it’s too hard to resist. I even had time to do a quick tanning session. Yes, it was that warm! From 0ºC one month ago to 25ºC in the afternoon today. CAN YOU IMAGINE???

Oh it’s so pretty…..

Spring definitely makes me a happy person and this is also my first time experiencing a full bloom season. I love autumn too but spring is just so beautiful don’t you think?

Some sparklers to add a little ‘magic’ to the night.

I guess you can tell which country we represented.

Food and drinks were aplenty but when midnight was approaching, we weren’t sure what to do. Some wanted to go to a club but many of us weren’t really all for being treated like crap and suffering among the throngs of people in overpriced, claustrophobic, dark and loud spaces (if we can even get in, that is). The other option was to go to the Eiffel Tower to see fireworks but according to what happened last year (tear gas and NO fireworks, what a ripoff!) that was out of the option as well.

So we decided to bring some bottles and go to one of the bridges by the Seine. Great thing I live right by it! Oh how I love this place.

Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes within 12 seconds before midnight.

Oh yeah….. almost there!

It’s the new year! Sparklers!!!

The result of extremely insisting people who wanted a full group photo.

Well, the new year makes me wonder what’s going to happen for my work and personal life, it’s all so nerve-wrecking! I guess I should update my list of goals to achieve this year. I was quite happy with what I’ve done in the past 2 years but for some reason, I feel like 2011 is so indefinite. Oh and if you’re wondering what my new year’s resolution is, I have none.

The one thing I don’t like about December is the part about spending too much money. It always happens in December!

When I was in Amsterdam, I stayed in a boathouse with Ian and his family. It was an interesting experience because it was very… different from anything I’ve tried before. Actually it is just like a teeny-tiny apartment inside the boat, just not recommended for people who get seasick easily. I have to say though, it’s extremely calming sleeping on a bed that’s gently rocking all the time.

Our ‘neighbours’.

Met up with Katrina too, now only Steph is missing!

When I came back, Romain was getting a new kitchen installed so his parents came to Paris to help him out. Apparently in France, people rarely ever hire workers to do DIY things to their home. Because of that, the 2 weeks became incredibly crazy and by the end of it, all 3 of them couldn’t stand a minute longer of each other! We are all really happy with the new kitchen though, especially me because I spend so much time there!

Still very much at the beginning.

It was such a nice day outside too…

Finally finished! And a very curious Fifou.

I also met Alice for the first time after having seen her when skype-ing with Chrysan during her days in Paris. It was really fun because we went back to a familiar part of town, and it was almost as if we’ve known each other before. That’s pretty much my summary of this month.

This one’s for you, Chrysan!

View of the park from Romain’s living room

Snow outside my window

Fortunately one day it snowed a lot and I took the opportunity to make my long awaited snowman with my housemate Susanne. It was quite exciting and the results looked really good! We even had a small audience watching us in the park and many people took photos of it and even with it.

Curious crowd wondering what we were up to

Susanne making the finishing touches

After one hour in the freezing snow, we present to you…

Voila, our snowman Monsieur Jean-Romain! (hehe)

p.s Susanne went back the next day to check on Monsieur Jean-Romain but apparently he had turned into a pile of icy mush on the ground and even lost his banana nose that we left there too!

Charing Cross Hotel for the first show ‘A La Mode’.

Party time with Salva and his friends. That was a crazy night, that’s all I will say.

There was also a ‘gay pope’ dressed in the theme’s colours gold and white!

The ‘fabulous life’ of fashion designers. Slaving in a tiny room on bed spaces.

You can’t really see it here but Jade Jagger was the special guest for Dolce & Gabbana’s party. I swear.

Typical English pub. What did I have there? Fish and Chips of course!

Coming back to Paris with Jonathan was quite funny because we had so many bags of our shopping, his humongous suitcases of clothes and shoes from his collection and all this while running to the Eurostar terminal trying to NOT miss the train back to Paris. Once we got to Paris, we could finally relax and enjoy ourselves and of course joined by Angie Ng! These two were my fantastic housemates for the next 2 weeks, Malaysian pride.

We wanted to see the Techno Parade but all we got was the tail end of it, a giant group of monster trucks cleaning up after the crowd. It was quite impressive how efficient they were!

A week later, I took a weekend vacation to the south west of France and it was certainly very different from Paris but in a good way.

Catching the 7:30 am train with 4.5 hours to go.

This is Orthez, hometown to Romain.

And Biarritz, the chic casino city of the south west of France.

And then we drove down to Spain! I love how we can cross borders so easily here in Europe. The moment we entered spain, all the roadsigns were different and the buildings a bit more strange too. We only did a day trip to San Sebastian but I didn’t care because all I wanted to do was attack Zara.

I know I should not be playing with my food, but still…

With my very strange tasting violet-flavoured ice cream (it was like eating sweet soap). The cold did not stop me.

And then it was time to head back to Paris…

I love my life here!

Anyway, I was back in Malaysia for a few days in August for some shoots. It was quite ironic that while I was still living there, I could barely find enough jobs to survive from month to month but after moving to Paris, clients were willing to fly me back to shoot there. Just a fluke chance I guess?

Oh hello, that’s me! Why do I look like I have really fat legs??

Syahmi and Jonathan hard at work as usual…

One of the shoots were for a new brand ULTRA which promotes eco-friendly clothes but with very edgy designs, not your run-of-the-mill hippy-hemp-tie-dye kind of fashion. It was fun because I got to work with Jonathan and Syahmi again, as they are currently the main designers for the label headed by Tengku Chanela Jamidah. I’ll post the campaign pictures with more information here once it’s released.

The main reason I was back was to shoot for a Levi’s Fit Finder event. According to the event organisers from Tongue In Chic, Levi’s wanted me to be a ‘guest photographer’ to photograph regular off-the-street girls in their new jeans where the event was being held. Sounds pretty simple but it was actually quite a challenge. Everybody was really nice and sweetto accommodate me so I hope to be able to work with them again. I got a really nice surprise when I arrived and saw this:

They make me sound like such a celebrity (super ego alert!).

Once back in Paris, it was just in time for my birthday! I really wanted to spend it here even though it was just with four friends of mine. I came up with the fantastic idea of having a small but intimate picnic celebration at a park with lots of sushi and champagne instead of the usual cheese and wine. I was so sick of that after numerous amounts of picnics (as you can also see in my post before this). The weather was gorgeous although a bit cold but I think everybody can agree that we had a great time that day. I do think that finishing so much champagne in a short period of time had something to do with that. All I remember was ending up drinking some more by The Seine and passing out after I got home but hey, it was my birthday!

In the beginning…

<3 <3 <3

So happy!

Around the same time, I was having problems with my eyes for the past few weeks. I didn’t bother seeing a doctor because I thought it was just conjunctivitis or some minor irritation that would eventually go away. One day it got so bad that I could barely open my eyes and anything with light would completely blind me. My eyes were swollen and completely bloodshot, it was really scary. I looked really scary! It hurt to see anything and I had to stay in a completely dark room just so I wouldn’t be agonising in pain. I gave in and decided to see a doctor about it and found out that I had corneal ulcers!

My eyes are healing now but my vision is still very blurry so I really hope that everything will completely heal soon. If I had let it go untreated, it could have scarred my corneas and there’s a possibility that I could go blind and require and eye transplant. Just the thought of me going blind is nerve-wrecking. Imagine a blind photographer; I don’t think I could do what Beethoven did with his music…

Just recently, I was at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France to photograph Nataliya and Bastien’s wedding. Now I know plenty of you know that I don’t do weddings but Nataliya was a model I photographed before in Singapore last year and it just so happened that I was also in France at the same time. Apparently even before finding out that I live here now, she’s wanted me to photograph her wedding from the very beginning, so talk about chance! I will write more about her wedding a little later though.

The view outside my window in Aix-en-Provence.

A little sneak preview. This shot was taken straight off the camera!

And now it’s already September! OMG where did the time go???? I promise September’s update will be much more interesting. Really!

Bon voyage Malaisie, bonjour Paris!

I’m quite glad that there are so many things to do here so I’m quite rarely bored, unless I stay at home the whole day. Few things I’m quite upset I didn’t do though like hunting down the cast of Gossip Girls when they were filming around the city, going to Champs-Élysées to experience the finals of the Tour de France, and uhm…. that’s all that I can think of right now! The pictures will tell you the rest of the story.

Rollerblading at Palais Royal.

We celebrated Catherine’s 23rd birthday at Pont des Arts and it was a day before Bastille Day so plenty of people were having picnics on the bridge. It started out quite sane but at the end of the night it became quite crazy because everybody on the bridge was extremely drunk. We had plenty of random people ‘joining’ our little party, taking pictures with us and all I remember was a lot of random flirting going on. French guys are certainly very curious when they see a bunch of Asian girls together.

The next day was Bastille Day (the French national day). I didn’t bother going to watch the parade because it was raining so I opted to watch it on our tiny little TV set and laughed at everybody caught out in the rain! It looked kinda boring anyway so going to watch the fireworks at night was a much better option.

For some reason, these photos make it seem even more amazing then it actually was!

On a random note, I got very hungry the next day and made this:

Yum, yum, yum.

Sam visited for a few days and I took him around Paris to see the sights. Seriously, I can be a very good tour guide right now. My only complaint is that my feet are starting to get sore with so much walking in just one month!

There was one really cliché thing that I’ve always wanted to do, which was to have a picnic underneath the Eiffel Tour so this was the perfect opportunity! There’s something about it that’s incredibly charming but doing it once is enough, and of course the food also has to be super French like baguettes, wine, cheese, saucisson, cherries, etc etc. It’s good now but I’m already starting to get sick of it!

Lots and lots of people at Champ de Mars.

From sunset at 9 pm to the light show at 11 pm. So beautiful.

I’ve been trying to meet more new people in Paris recently. It’s quite tiring when I have to go out almost everyday but I guess that’s better than staying home all day. However, I received a bunch of flowers yesterday which was unusual but also quite sweet. I’m not much of a flower person so this is a very, very rare occurrence I can assure you of that, but I guess it’s the thought that counts!

I wonder how long this will survive?